Guéridon with Panthers, with Roman Micromosaic

Guéridon with Panthers, with Roman Micromosaic.
Parcel-gilt bronze, black marble, micromosaic.
France.
ca. 1860.
h. 30.71 in. ; d. 22.83 in.

This bronze guéridon is an adaptation of a tripod given in 1802 by Ferdinand IV, King of Naples and Sicily, to Bonaparte, First Consul. This folding Roman tripod, dated between 50 BC and 50 AD, is described by archaeologist Francesco Carelli, sent by the King of Naples to France, in a Description of Ancient Monuments Sent to the First Consul by His Majesty the King of the Two Sicilies, published in 1803 in the Journal des Sciences, des Lettres et des Arts :

Among the monuments dedicated to the religion of the ancients, His Majesty selected a very beautiful tripod crafted with such art that it can be folded into a small volume. Each leg is adorned with a head, a lion’s claw, and foliage. Its brazier fits on top with three handles, and it is clear how it was well-suited for various temple uses; that is, for burning perfumes, the flesh of sacrificial victims, or for receiving libations.

The tripod arrived in Paris in early 1803 with around a hundred objects, all from the “Herculaneum Museum” and offered as a diplomatic gift by Ferdinand IV. It was transported in May to Malmaison under Francesco Carelli’s supervision and at Joséphine’s request, though it entered the Louvre a decade later under Charles X following the dispersal of Joséphine’s collections.

The bronze tripod from Malmaison served as the model for this guéridon, faithfully reproducing the leg adorned with a head, a lion’s claw, and foliage of the antique. However, the silhouette of our lion’ claw — in fact a lioness or a panther — is more slender and gilded.

A brief enthusiasm for neo-Pompeian and neo-Roman furniture explains the reappearance of Ferdinand IV’s tripod in the early 1860s : a very similar guéridon can be seen in a photograph by Jeanne Laplanche taken in 1866 at Prince Napoleon’s Pompeian villa on Avenue Montaigne, designed in the early 1860s by architect Alfred Normand. This guéridon likely dates to that period.

It supports a black marble top, adorned at the center with a particularly fine micromosaic depicting the Temple of Vesta in Tivoli, which evokes the ancient ritual function of the Herculaneum tripod.

Sources

Francesco Carelli, « Description des monumens antiques envoyés au premier Consul, par sa majesté le roi des Deux-Siciles », dans Magasin Encyclopédique, ou Journal des Sciences, des Lettres et des Arts, Paris 1803 ; Théophile Gautier, Le Palais pompéien de l'avenue Montaigne, Paris, 1866 ; Maurice Allem, La Vie quotidienne sous le Second Empire, Paris, 1948 ; Martine Denoyelle, Eye of Josephine. The Antiquities Collection of the Empress in the Musée du Louvre, Atlanta, 2008.